Decided to post this here, some people might have missed it in the News Headlines.

Quote:

A few days ago we released our Windows 7 upgrade guide with the hopes of answering all your burning questions regarding the inexpensive upgrade editions that so many of us have pre-ordered. One of the questions that we couldn't answer at the time however, was how Windows 7 would handle the verification process to ensure that you were eligible to update. In Windows XP upgrade editions, you simply needed to insert an older install disk. Vista upped the ante considerably by requiring you to have a previous version installed (no activation required). Windows 7 on the other hand, will now require an activated previous version to be installed and not even the workaround found in the Vista version will be permitted.

This will no doubt become a point of controversy among Maximum PC readers since to be honest, this is a real hassle. As PC enthusiasts we tend to be fond of frequent re-installs either due to constantly changing hardware, or perhaps even just to regain performance lost after experimenting with too many of Murphy's Freeware picks. The only good news I learned from all of this, is that the Windows 7 RC will serve as a qualifying previous version (assuming of course that it's activated). I would highly advise readers who purchased the upgrade edition run an imaging program such as Acronis True Image, to take a snapshot of your drive before you install the Windows 7 upgrade. You'll need to decompress the image back onto the drive each time you do a fresh install, but it will certainly save you a great deal of time compared to installing and activating two separate OSs each time you want to start over.

That "has to be installed and activated requirement" would completely blow if you had to reinstall for any reason after the first time you upgraded. I would have bought the upgrade version too if I wasn't on technet. The make an image thing assumes your copy of XP or Vista would be fine again after a restore but if you changed enough hardware you'll end up being on the phone with MS activating the copy again for a few minutes of use only to upgrade to Win7. That is just retarded.

Yes. You MUST install it, and activate it, before upgrading to Win7. Same goes for Vista.

so the next question would be if I install xp, activate it then put in my upgrade copy of 7 does it go through all the files and make changes, or does it wipe the whole lot and give me a relatively clean install? Last thing I want is a half assed upgrade that will give me problems. Or even if there was a test that could go through everything and tell me the OS is all here, all up to date.

If you have to install XP then activate it then install Win 7 overtop of it will they deactivate your Win XP key? If they do how in the hell will you ever use the upgrade disc of Win 7 again if they just ruined your XP install by deactivating the key?